Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

That is very true and worth noting. We often hear people say if there was another report by a consultancy firm, it might crack it, but I cannot see it.

The IMO's colleagues from the Irish Hospital Consultants Association were before the committee last week. I have also spoken to colleagues who are members of both unions and neither and they have referred to the revolving door created by the National Treatment Purchase Fund, NTPF. They have outlined a scenario where the person who has waited the longest will be offered an appointment in the private health sector with a consultant, with the patient then being returned to be added to another list for treatment. Is that the delegates' experience of how the system operates? It appears to be a very cynical exercise in waiting list manipulation which does not necessarily move people any closer to receiving the treatment they need. I am interested in hearing the views of the delegates in that regard.